The above named manufacturers are privately held, so the mayor’s investment advice will have little impact on them and most other firearms companies. But one major gun manufacturer represented in the LAPD’s inventory, Smith & Wesson, is publicly traded, with a price as of this writing of $8.83 per share on the NASDAQ. This is well above its 52-week low of $4.93, indicating it might be worthy of inclusion in any pension fund’s portfolio. And consider: If all of Smith & Wesson’s investors joined in Mr. Villaraigosa’s exercise in moral posturing, the company might cease to exist, thereby depriving the LAPD and most other police departments in the country of some essential tools of the trade. And this is to say nothing of the millions of other Americans who use Smith & Wesson guns for recreation and self-defense.

And though the term “assault weapon” has no intrinsic meaning, the other term invoked by the mayor, “weapons of war,” does conjure up an ominous image. The only problem for the mayor is that the weapons he refers to are not designed “for war,” but rather for hunting, target practice, and, most importantly, constitutionally protected self-defense. That Mr. Villaraigosa would discourage city pension funds from being invested in companies that make products intended for use that is explicitly encouraged in the Constitution says more about him than it does about the companies themselves.

But then, Mr. Villaraigosa is not a man known for his keen intellect or his grasp of legal nuance. Though he attended law school, he failed in four attempts to pass the California bar exam before forsaking a career in the law in favor of a less intellectually demanding life in politics, for which, happily for him, there is no qualifying examination. And if the mayor happens to be of modest wattage between the ears, it is a deficiency that scarcely distinguishes him from most members of the city council, for whom empty gestures like the mayor’s investment recommendation have come to be routine.

And it is a routine that is often not only devoid of substance or meaningful consequence but sometimes comically inept. Witness the orgy of self-congratulatory preening that occurred at L.A. City Hall when, in 2010, the city council voted to boycott the state of Arizona over its passage of SB 1070, the controversial state law on illegal immigration. Council members compared Arizona to Nazi Germany before voting 13-1 in favor of the boycott. Despite the council’s actions, last year the LAPD’s SWAT team was somehow allowed to purchase sniper rifles from McMillan Firearms Manufacturing, located in Phoenix. As part of the purchase price, McMillan offers two days of training on its ranges and with its gunsmiths so as to allow police officers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the rifles. Such a training session would have cost the city of L.A. nothing but the price of gas, food, and lodging for four officers to travel to Phoenix. Permission was denied, allowing those who voted against it to cloak themselves in the cheap grace of this empty — and empty-headed — gesture.

Surely the city council will just as cravenly endorse the mayor’s call for divestment from gun makers, and they will all congratulate each other for their courageous stand against the NRA and the nefarious “gun lobby.” But in the end, as is the case with most of the effluence from City Hall, it won’t save any lives, it won’t stop any crimes, it won’t matter one bit.

Buffoonery is right. Let’s just come out and say it, the Democrat party is the party of simpletons. It’s the facile party. The party utterly lacks wisdom. At what point do we say that it’s not deviousness, craven power grabbing, or some other evil characteristic associated with intelligence?

They are the people that win high school elections because they appeal to the lowest common denominator, no pretense of wisdom or the “right thing to do”.

This is typified by Obama, just smart enough to appear intelligent, but utterly devoid of wisdom.

Just a reminder guys, he was elected and reelected multiple times, so blame LA voters. And his posturing, so far at least, won’t take away semi-auto pistols from the LA police and CA, unlike NY, hasn’t passed a law that made all NY police semis illegal(NY’s law sys only 7-round mags).

I rather expect that is stock in S&W is sold, there’ll be a rush to buy it to rival the dot-com boom. Hopefully in their moral outrage, they are prepared to sell it at a loss…I think I will cash in some bonds in anticipation.

As I speculated about Rahm’s Mutual Fund arm twisting, if these companies go big on the PR that their stock is going to be available they could do very well. Firearms stocks are doing extremely well. Since they will be appealing to conservatives who generally have taken some personal responsibility for their retirements there is a pretty vast group out there who would be interested in purchasing an affinity stock.

I would say that Mayor Villaraigosa’s behavior is typical of politicians and is probably the root cause of why they can never actually solve problems. Their goal is not to solve problems but rather is to make news and to get reelected. In my opinion, problem solvers avoid government like the plague which unfortunately clears the field for the least capable, most narcissistic people to occupy important positions in our society.

I strongly believe in federalism and localism with respect to governing because it is much easier to hold accountable politicians who are closer to us physically and electorally, i.e. accountable to a more homogeneous set of voters. Federalism and localism also allow us to more easily contain the damage that a Villaraigosa can wreak upon us. Politicians in DC are far more insulated and therefore far more capable of damaging our country.

Liberals depend on central government to advance their agenda. Let’s work hard to return power to its lowest practical level.

A lot of liberal politicians actually think they are solving problems. However, most of them are simply repeating policy that has been tried and failed countless times because but they are so arrogant they think that they can make it work. The liberal thinks they are the smartest, wisest, best educated person to ever have existed and that they can do no wrong because everyone around them tells them how great they are. Then there are the adoring crowds coming for their handouts and those others, well, it feels so good to think about stamping on their faces.

Real problems solvers probably do either steer clear of government or they simply get overwhelmed and pushed out by the political types who are more interested in solutions that result in more power for themselves even as problems compound.

That could be interesting. That means they’d have to go overseas to buy guns, something they have been complaining about citizens being able to do for some time. It would also be funny if they bought Chinese to save money and ended up with defective knockoffs or were sold out of date ammunition by swindlers.

That is the best idea I’ve heard so far – a reverse boycott. If a city or state passes any gun laws or threatens a manufacturer then that manufacturer refuses to sell guns or ammo to anyone in that city or state. It might hurt the bottom line a bit… but it would send a message, forcing the law enforcement agencies to go somewhere else or having to do without. Imagine the police only being able to purchase single shot pistols.

Not to anyone in the city or state, just to any agency of government within that city or state. Why penalize good customers. OTOH, we’re also in a war so if, as suggested above, the governments buy nonfunctional Chinese knockoffs, the citizens will be better off when, to use Michener’s phrase from The Drifters, the Crunch comes.

You mean like Ronnie Barrett did when CA, and L.A., passed bans on weapons chambered for .50BMG?
At the time, the LAPD had two Barrett M82′s in the Barrett shop for repair/maintanance. They were told to come and pick them up, as no work would be done, and they would have to find someone else to repair them.
It is about time that the industry as a whole followed Mr. Barrett’s lead, and starts to cut these politicians off by disarming their PD’s.

Given that we have taken to using laser guided concrete filled bomb casings to take out some targets in the War on Terror are we going to ban investing in construction companies as well? Erich Maria Remarque noted in his classic novel on the Great War, All Quiet on the Western Front,that spades had become the weapon of choice in trench raids. Will the companies that manufacture these weapons of war also be banned from the L.A. pension portfolio? Last question, if the pension funds are going to be used to back political goals at what point does a tax payer get alleviated from bailing an underperforming fund out? If they don’t seek to maximise returns, why should they have a bailout when the pensions are underfunded due to poor returns?

live in southern california and will not go to nor willingly patronize any business in the city of los angeles. it is lib central with no thought to what is good for the Citizens, but only what is good for illegal aliens and politicians, the police chief will not impound the cars of illegal aliens without a drivers licsense as is the law, but will to citizens driving on an expired or suspended. pure racism and anti Americanism. and he stays in opffice as does the liar and punk tony villar (his real name)

Note that the popo bought guns from McMillan. AFter California passed the .50 caliber ban, and LA police chief got on stage with the banners, Barrett sent a letter to the LA police informing them that because of the police stance, Barrett would no longer do maintenance on Barrett rifles they had bought nor sell them any more.

If push comes to shove, Officer Dunphy, you could always hit the perps in the face with a coconut cream pie. That used to be very big in Hollywood, although nowadays you might face some opposition to the idea. There’s entirely too much fat and sugar in a coconut cream pie to suit some people. Maybe if you hit the miscreants in the face with a plate of organic yogurt and wheat germ…no, that won’t work-what if they are lactose intolerant or have gluten issues? Given all of that, you’re probably better off speaking to the offenders in a stern tone of voice, but be careful that you’re not too stern; you might damage their self-esteem. You wouldn’t want that to happen, you know.

Refuse to sell firearms or ammunition to any government that passes such laws, referendums, etc. Let the police stop the criminals with slingshots & tasers. See how long before the police go on strike, and then the criminals start paying visits to Joe Lefty’s house.

There’s so much demand for AR’s, 9mm, and 5.56mm ammo right now that they cannot even keep shelves stocked. I doubt most companies would even notice a change in sales.

Mayor Bandwagon’s a funny guy. Like Rahm in Chicago, he finds it easier to make pronouncements, hitting them where they ain’t so to speak, in classic liberal fashion, than call out his protected groups who helped certain areas of LA rise to the level of the need for martial law and curfews 30 years ago.

I guess if you kill people one at a time, steadily, and in much greater numbers than some Columbine-style incident, it’s not really a big deal. Having the right skin color amounts to some odds system of what, 7 to 1 morality? 10 to 1?

When you hear whatever is being spoken by Obama, Biden, Feinstein, Cuomo, Villaraigosa, and other politicos too numerous to mention in this small space, its really impossible to distinguish whether the sounds are emanating from their mouths or the other end!

Has mayor Villaraigoso declared his home and office “Gun Free Zones” and sent his LAPD officers back on patrol detail yet? Bet not! Obama, Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo still have armed security to protect them, Senator Schumer still has his unresticted concealed carry permit.
The Founders avoided setting up a peerage class in America; we were supposed to be equal. Guess some people (the rulers) are more equal than the rest of us (subjects)…
These hypocrits would leave us defenseless. Guess we can forgive Villaraigosa for not understanding the 2nd Amendment…he flunked the Bar exam what, four times…

If you read the histories of the ancient Greeks with their cycles of democracies and tyrannies, you’ll see that this has all happened a dozen times before. We are only doomed to repeat history if we decide it is too hard to try… .

The other side of this is also interesting.
In the face of overwhelming legacy costs, they are willing to sacrifice investment in one of the few strong sectors remaining in our economy.
They want to force fund managers to go against their fiduciary duty to maximize returns.

Fulfilling promises and upholding duties means less to these people than taking opportunities to mug for the camera and press their base political desires.

Meanwhile the military industrial complex is doing this. Odd, that nobody mentions these figures. I guess this is Progressive!

Since 2004, up to 884 innocent civilians, including at least 176 children, have died from US drone strikes in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. A new report from the Stanford and New York University law schools finds drone use has caused widespread post-tramatic stress disorder and an overall breakdown of functional society in North Waziristan. In addition, the report finds the use of a “double tap” procedure, in which a drone strikes once and strikes again not long after, has led to deaths of rescuers and medical professionals. Many interviewees told the researchers they didn’t know what America was before drones. Now what they know of America is drones, death and terror.

This reminds me of a story I recently read out of Burlington, Vermont. It seems that the city council up there has proposed an “assault weapons” ban within the city. In response, a local shooting club announced that they will no longer let the local police train at their range.

I had heard Villar failed the bar 13 times. Either way, he’s a dolt (“we clean your toilets!”; “weapons of war!”). So is his LA city council. I sincerely hope we get someone with sane and common sense ideas in LA government soon. It’s been way too long…

Why does Mr. Villaraigosa not call for the ending of US weapons manufacture and export seeing so many scoundrels all over the world end up gaining access to American arms? I am sure he has never considered this or even considered the contradictory nature of his views.

So the Mayor says he doesn’t want to invest in weapons of war. Does he not know that his officers deploy these weapons daily; so is he tacitly admitting that his time of leadership over the city of LA has caused it to become a war zone?

I believe I can show a hint to the distrust of government, and I would like to also know where are the angels in government? They are a fairy tale written by bureaucrats with a very large dose of propaganda!

Published on Dec 7, 2012 SAN DIEGO, CA — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ran anti-terror drills in which civilians dressed as zombies were gunned down indiscriminately by soldiers and police. Detailed makeup was used as well as pyrotechnics. This exercise was coordinated by the HALO Corporation.

tripping over each other to race before the cameras and proclaim their outrage…DO YOU KNOW ANYONE who spends more time tripping over anything he has to to get in front of a camera more then Tony V. i.e. Mr. Smiley Face, there is no such person.

Well Mr. ‘D’ I think you know how I’ll be voting on this issue. But the Mayor’s appointees are weak and pliable. They will droll to meet their ‘masters’ order and jump thru the hoop. They have just this on the selection of our General Manager by bowing to the pressure of the mayor’s office and going for the candidate the mayor wants rather than the best candidate–our current manager. They have admiited to this so their weakness has credit. This gun divestment issue will be easy for them and neither logic nor reason will prevail-they are without character or principle. They have their own self interest at heart and the retention of their coveted position on the Pension Board. The elected members will use the best arguments possible but it will fall on dumb ears. Thanks for saying what many of us believe and fought for. Respectfully, George

As a native Angelino, I can tell you Tony Villar (his original name) is a joke in LA. He is Obama without the brains as anyone can see watching him on screen. He has presided over a city that is going bankrupt and where gangs are trying to keep up with Chicago in terms of killings. Yet, this boob will likely be our next governor. Then it’s on to Washington-the Senate or even the White House. Obama, Hillary then Villar. History will one day record it as “The Dark Decades”.